Hey I have a few questions if someone knows the answers help me, the first one is about the heating and illumination of my vivarium im using a heating bulb from exo-terra but the question is, should I leave the lamp place over the screen or should I leave a certain distance so my tokay wont get burn? and the second one, is there something that can substitute the styrofoam? cuz here in my town I couldn't find it and I want to make the background and add a waterfall

I don't know about the light, but for a background, you can use "great stuff" Its the expanding insulation foam found in a can. Once it dries, its non-toxic. I used it in my vivarium and it worked great.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Hey! thanks for the help, but I was wondering if I can use some of the polyestirene that coolers are made and cover it with the foam you are saying

I've moved your thread to the Herp Habitats forums, your question may get more of the attention they need over here. As for the lighting question, that all depends on how hot it gets It's pretty much that simple. Set the light on the screen and if it gets too hot on the screen, then you'll need to give it some distance. If it's not too hot then it should be ok to leave there. If the actual bulb comes in contact with the screen then I'd give it some distance though.

I should point out though that tokays are nocturnal and won't really use a basking light, and will actually hide from any bright light you provide them. Putting a heat pad on the outside of one of the vertical walls of the tank will better simulate how they'd absorb heat in the wild. They hide during the day and at night will scour tree trunks or buildings for food.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

That's a good way to start a background off. That is with the polystyrene you are speaking off. You don't necessarily have to put the expanding foam on at all
1. if using a 3 sided glass enclosure first apply dark silicone to the inside of the tank where the edges of the foam will show through. Just so you don't see the unsightly white edges.
2. cut background to size and silicone to back of tank(best to lay tank on it's back )
3. use paint thinner or heat gun or even hair dryer to melt some indentations in the styrofoam and give it an uneven look. Just be careful not to go right through. Be careful if you use paint thinner. Just brush a little on at a time and let it eat away before continuing.
4. Use putty knife to apply brown or black silicone to the styofoam. Do a small area at a time and press your background substrate such as crushed coconut fibre into it. Continue until completed.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hi!, thanks for the help and I was wondering if I can make the panels removable so I can clean it up later? just like Igor did.

PS: and thanks for congratulate me about my B-day! lol

Hopefully Igor can reply to how he accomplished that. I'm not sure how he did it.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hehe,

I have stumbled upon this thread after reading TokayDude's PM

I am in the process of finilizing the enclosure itself so there will be updates soon.

As for the removable background I have already replied the PM but to iterate here is what I did.

I have originally thought of the removable concept in terms of making the background of 3 parts so I can easily remove them later.

2x sides + 1 back.
I made sure that the styrofoam piceses fit together perfectly when inserted into the enclosure and there is no space behind so annoying crickets wouldnt get behind and wake me up at night **Squeek Squeek***(or whatever sound ehy make ))

After the fitting was done I proceeded to carving + gluing the rocks... "Mortar"ing then painting, epoxying. (that was the lengthiest process you can follow through in my thread)

I also made sure that there was no mortar or paint or epoxy behind the panels so the fit nicely into the enclosure. ( that was the idea).

hmmm.... I hope this clears some things up.... if not ask me more and I shall answer.

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Igor
"Things we do for our pets..."